{"id":838,"date":"2022-03-03T15:44:28","date_gmt":"2022-03-03T07:44:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lovely.sg\/?p=838"},"modified":"2022-03-03T15:44:28","modified_gmt":"2022-03-03T07:44:28","slug":"838-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovely.sg\/838-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Former Air Force Engineer Turned Professional Caregiver, Jonathan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Retirement can mean different things for different people. After decades of participating in the workforce, most of us would rather spend our retirement years in the company of family and friends, travelling the world, discovering (or rediscovering) a hobby \u2014 or a combination of all three. However, for some among us, retirement not only marks the end of work, but the beginning of a more meaningful life.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meet Jonathan Chan, a 64-year-old retiree and former engineer with the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) who now takes care of elderly patients as a freelance professional caregiver.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"caregiver\"<\/p>\n

Paying it forward<\/b><\/p>\n

Becoming a professional caregiver wasn\u2019t always part of the plan for Jonathan, who spent 40 years working for the RSAF. His career choice made sense, considering his interest in engineering, which developed all the way back in secondary school. \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to be an engineer and get my hands dirty. So when the opportunity came up, my father encouraged me to sign on with the Air Force. He said it was a good skill to have,\u201d recalls Jonathan. \u201cBesides, we had a big family, so it was one fewer mouth to feed!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Life eventually took a turn for the unexpected. About 10 years ago, Jonathan\u2019s mother, then 82 years old, suffered a major stroke, which required her to be on nasogastric intubation, or feeding food and medicine via a tube through the nose. Compounding the situation was when Jonathan\u2019s father, who suffered from Parkinson\u2019s Disease, passed away a few years later due to acute respiratory disorder. This sequence of events placed great strain on the entire family.<\/span><\/p>\n

The only light of hope were the healthcare professionals that Jonathan met at the nursing homes. \u201cBoth my parents, at different times, required round-the-clock care. As much as I wanted to help, I didn\u2019t have the professional training, which was why the nursing home became the next best option,\u201d Jonathan shares.<\/span><\/p>\n

One thing he keenly remembers is how the nursing home staff went above and beyond their call of duty. \u201cMost of these caregivers were foreign workers. They were working away from home and taking care of someone else\u2019s family members. Yet, they had so much passion, care and concern. They really made a difference in the final months of my parents\u2019 lives.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When his retirement was right around the corner, Jonathan knew exactly what he wanted to do with all the time he had on hand. \u201cI wanted to contribute to society in any way that I could, specifically for the elderly people. After the experience with my parents and what I witnessed at the nursing homes, it\u2019s the least I could do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Upskilling for the greater good\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

There is a lot that goes into becoming a professional caregiver, especially those that take care of the elderly. Aside from providing food and making sure that medications are topped up and consumed on time, there were knowledge and skill sets that Jonathan simply didn\u2019t have. Without the know-how but a heart in the right place, Jonathan decided to enrol himself in several courses.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first was a two-month course at the National Trades Union Congress Learning Hub<\/a>, where he achieved a WSQ Certificate, specifically in Community and Social Service (Eldercare). Here, he learnt how to perform Activity in Daily Living, or ADL, such as feeding, general mobility and wardrobe changes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The second was a four-month course at the Health Management International (HMI) Institute of Health Sciences. This was where he learnt more advanced skills, such as assisting physiotherapists. While there, Jonathan also spent up to six months at Ren Ci Community Hospital and St Andrew\u2019s Nursing Home, where he put knowledge into practice for the first time. By the end of the course, he achieved the WSQ Higher Certificate in Healthcare Support (Therapy Support).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, as a mandatory part of the course, Jonathan learnt basic first-aid lessons and how to operate an Automated External Defibrillator at the Singapore Emergency Responder Academy.<\/span><\/p>\n

During his training, Jonathan came to know about <\/span>Homage<\/span><\/a>, a personal care service provider that provides holistic home and community-based caregiving to seniors and adults. After performing his due diligence, Jonathan decided to work with Homage as a freelance professional caregiver in October 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Homage\"
Jonathan with staff member from Homage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Touching hearts and earning trust as a professional caregiver<\/b><\/p>\n

Over the years, Jonathan has personally taken care of over 50 people, the majority of them being elderly patients with varying degrees of physiological or neurological conditions. When Jonathan was working as a Homage Care Professional, a patient that left a deep impression was Frank (not his real name), a 92-year-old whose family requested companionship, meal arrangement, and someone to keep him active.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Even though every patient has a different story and healthcare needs, the cases all begin the same way. \u201cIt is difficult to earn their trust, at least at the beginning.\u201d Jonathan shares. \u201cAfter all, you are not part of the family, so it\u2019s natural for the patients and family members to be hesitant about your presence. The key is to focus on the patients, serve their needs and the trust comes after that.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the next several months, Jonathan and Frank became fast friends. Firstly, similar to Jonathan, Frank worked as a mechanical engineer and repaired construction vehicles. Secondly, Jonathan would often make Frank\u2019s favourite dish: ABC soup. \u201cFrank also loved his coffee to be extra thick, but it wasn\u2019t too healthy for him,\u201d Jonathan says with a laugh. \u201cI still made it for him sometimes, but I told him not to tell his wife.\u201d In between caregiving duties, the two would even watch sports, documentaries and discuss what they were watching.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This became the template by which Jonathan approached his patients. \u201cOver time, the patients and I build rapport. They can see that I care for them with sincerity and passion, and the trust grows from there \u2014 and it\u2019s not just the patients themselves. It\u2019s also important to earn the trust of their family members.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A new life after retirement<\/b><\/p>\n

Retirement is a hot-button issue that\u2019s been in the news as of late. With the <\/span>decision<\/span> to raise the retirement age<\/a> from 65 years old to 70 years old, there are concerns about whether Singaporeans could ever stop working.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The truth is that raising the retirement age is about supporting older Singaporeans, especially those who wish to continue working. The concept of \u2018work\u2019, too, is up to the individual. As much as Jonathan chose to become a professional caregiver after retirement, not everybody needed to follow the same footsteps.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead, he believes that it is more important to find your passion and engage in lifelong learning, \u201cWhen one has the required skills, knowledge and attitude to perform the job professionally, the ultimate reward is job satisfaction,\u201d he shares. \u201cYou have to love what you do, or what you aim to do, in order to have the motivation and create meaning in life.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Retirement can mean different things for different people. After decades of participating in the workforce, most of us would rather spend our retirement years in the company of family and friends, travelling the world, discovering (or rediscovering) a hobby \u2014 or a combination of all three. However, for some among us, retirement not only marks…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":844,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[74],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovely.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovely.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovely.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovely.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovely.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lovely.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovely.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovely.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovely.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovely.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}